Thursday 8 April 2010

Lost in Translation

While we are on the subject of technology: I have, in the past, impressed Lord Magnon with my fluent Chinese, when replying to some comments made by people from that part of the world. Of course, it was all done with the iMac's in-built translator. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

I have friends who play a game whereby they put an English phrase into a translator, then put the translated phrase back in again, to turn it back into English, just to see what happens. It's a good game, apparently.

One of the best results was the phrase, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak", put into Russian, then back into English again.

It came out as, "The vodka is strong, but the meat has gone off".

9 comments:

  1. 我有一個便宜的貨物 1000螺栓布可在一個特殊的價格向您只。

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  2. I prefer the second version.

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  3. On a slightly different note, a friend was recently given a diet-sheet from his French hospital. He was advised against eating 'Dutch Women'. Nothing wrong with that, you might say, but in fact they were talking about 'Hollandaise' (sauce).

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  4. 谢谢你,但我的裤子都非常优秀, Mise.

    And beware of putting your fingers into Dutch Dykes too, Cro.

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  5. Excellent work. I had faced the same problem, where "reader" changed into "player". Still, it was a fun!

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  6. I don't know how I can add to this except to say, Je veux voler comme un cardinal écarlate

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  7. Funny you should say that, Amy. I was working in Florida, and asked what the bright red bird I saw every day was called, and the guy said, "Oh, we call that a red bird'". Fair enough, I suppose. Our terminology for a blackbird is not so special either.

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  8. Sounds like a mistranslated Eastern European porn flick, not that I would know anything about that!

    :D

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